


One Moment Less

by FrozenAbattoir



Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic (Video Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2018-12-04
Packaged: 2019-09-07 04:03:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16846759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FrozenAbattoir/pseuds/FrozenAbattoir
Summary: Only the wretched die young.





	One Moment Less

**16 ATC // _Derriphan,_ Fury-class Imperial Interceptor**

    They all feel it in their own way, in one bitter shared shattering. The hollow realization that there is nothing they can do but grieve or rage or disbelieve. Separate moments divided by space, time, and meaningless political lines but bound together by the emptiness that sits where so many of their threads once tangled up.

    Ashara knows first, the chilling knot of foreboding that’s been sitting in her gut crystallizing into a jagged spike of despair. The Force howls and writhes like a cornered animal when one, two, three waves of cold dread wash over her senses. First Marr, the masked statesman who would never kneel. Then the twisted presence of the Emperor himself, melting into the churning fabric of the Force like blood into water. And then that familiar burning, brilliant spark of fate and defiance flickers out, fading into cooling embers lost in the haze of chaos that descends on the lonely starship fleeing the unknown.

    Khem Val knows this feeling. This despair, this abandonment. Once again he is left behind, outliving the master he would have died for. Should have died for. A creature of rage made flesh, an infinite hunger shaped into the perfect warrior. He who walked the killing fields of Yn with Tulak Hord. He who hunted an Emperor on Ziost with the Sith who would have changed the galaxy. Yes, he remembers how to grieve.

    Xalek is no stranger to loss. His people, his tribe, his father- all torn and scattered by the whims of fate. It’s no surprise he devoted himself to the first real permanence in his life. He was her soldier, her enforcer, her hammer upon so many nails. She was the pinnacle of strength, the very height of power and passion that eclipsed the fading glories of an Empire chained to the past. But now she too is gone. What becomes of a sword without a hand to wield it?

    Andronikos understands the instant he sees their expressions. He knows that look. He’s seen it many times. In the Republic, where soldiers little older than children died alone on meaningless worlds. As a pirate, when a raid went sour and there were too many bunks left empty. He doesn’t need to ask. He understands. His Sith is gone. All he can do is obey her last command: “Get them to safety, Andronikos. That’s an order.” She always was the better captain.

    Talos Drellik loses his commanding officer, but more importantly he loses a friend. There will be no more late night debates over various translations of the High Sith tablets found on Yavin 4. (He still maintains that he was right. But it feels wrong to claim any kind of victory now.) For days on end he catalogs her collections, tagging each artifact and holocron for safekeeping. Now she is just another page in an unwritten history book, a passage of unsurpassed brilliance that cuts off mid-sentence because he knows she had more to say, more to give.

    They see her name carved into the walls of Kaas City, joining countless others who gave the Empire everything they had. Seeing the words engraved into the timeless stone makes it all too real, all too immediate, all too permanent. And above all, far too soon.

DARTH NOX

Luzianna Kallig

8 BTC - 16 ATC

_“Zhol kash dinora.”_


End file.
